Chapter 7
Seven
I pace my bedroom floor, clamping my hands into fists. How dare she call me names like that? Gah! She makes me so mad! On impulse, I draw my foot back and swing it at the wall. Something smacks to the floor, but all I see is white.
Ouch!
I hop around the floor, holding my foot. As a soccer player, I should know better than to kick something by leading with my toe. Pain pulses through my big toe and ricochets up the rest of my foot.
I perch on my bed with my ankle crossed over my thigh. I take a few steady breaths and squeeze my foot until the pain dissipates. My eyes refocus and I blink until they clear. With a heavy exhale, I release my foot and let it slip onto the floorboards.
I pan across to where I kicked the wall and see a baseboard flipped on its side a foot away from the wall.
I guess I kicked fairly low, but how crappy are they to just fall off?
Maybe it’s normal for old homes? I move off the bed and pick up the painted piece of wood.
The piece is only two feet long and is the middle section of the baseboard.
So weird. I always figured this piece was one long strip running the entire length of this wall.
As I bend down to put the piece back in place, something catches my eye. Diagonally edged inside is a thin, oblong-shaped item. Surely it doesn’t belong. With little thought, I yank it out. It gives some resistance and shakes off some dust, but I budge it all the way out.
After some coughs and splutters from the dust, I take the object in my hand. It’s a diary. Carefully, I open the front cover. Chills spread the length of my arms and numb my hands, causing me to drop it where I kneel.
Holy crap.
It’s my mom’s.
A sudden noise behind me sends me into a jolt. I breathe out when I realize it’s my ringtone. I leave the diary on the floor and scoot over to my bed. I smile happily at the screen. Kai Calling.
I answer, putting the phone to my ear. “Hey.”
Kai huffs into the phone. “Man, I’m in so much trouble.”
I frown. “What did you do?”
“Forgot Milo.”
“Oh yeah. Thanks for that. He had dinner with us because Maddy thought it was the perfect opportunity for more studying.”
Kai’s laughter plays through the phone. “My bad. Did any of it sink in?”
“Yeah, kinda. Despite Aunt Maddy and Mr. Stuffy trying to sabotage me.”
“Whoa. What happened?”
“David wants Maddy to go to Hawaii with him for seven days. Right when everything in my life is on fire. It’s so selfish!”
“What?” Kai shouts. A smile tingles at my lips. “She can’t abandon you when you’ve just been kicked off the soccer team.”
“Not to mention this whole getting kicked out of school thing.”
A frustrated grunt flies out of Kai. “Isn’t Maddy supposed to be your guardian? The parental figure? And she just wants to fly off for a vacation when your world has done a one-eighty? Nope. You have to fight her on this.”
“I tried,” I whine, falling back on the bed. “But then your brother opened his big yap, helping Maddy find excuses to leave me.”
“Wait, Milo did what?”
“Aunt Maddy was figuring out how she could leave when I’d be home alone, so Milo blurts, ‘Why doesn’t she stay with us?’”
Kai sighs. “Well, that’s a no-brainer. Of course, you’d stay with us.”
“But I didn’t want Maddy to realize it. She could’ve squashed the whole idea right then. But no. Milo was here.”
“He barely adds to conversations,” Kai replies. “Why would he start then?”
“Exactly!” I whine, sitting up. “You are in trouble. If you hadn’t forgotten him, he’d never have been here.”
Kai laughs. “Sorry. It’s not like I truly forgot him. I was just doing something better.”
“Something better?” Better than having another excuse to see your best friend?
“Tabby texted me that she and her friends were shopping. Parker made us turn the cars around because, you know, he has a thing for Yvette.” A nervous laugh puffs out of him. “And an excuse to see Tabby again took little convincing.”
“Oh.” My hand squeezes the phone and the other cramps into a fist. “So, you were on Main Street the whole time?”
“Mmm. Part of the time. Wait, are you mad? You sound a little mad.”
“No.” I blow out a breath, hoping to relax and change my tune. “Like I said, it’s your fault Milo was still with us. If you’d just answered your phone or returned a text saying you were on Main street, it would’ve been cool to leave Milo waiting.”
“What can I say? When I’m around Tabby, my phone is the last thing on my mind.”
“Oh.”
“Chill out. I’m not ignoring you. Hello, we’re on the phone right now.”
I smile and an awkward laugh fumbles out. “Yeah, I know. Guess I’m just on edge after fighting with Aunt Maddy.”
Kai blows out a breath. “How can she not think about your needs? No wonder you’re pissed.”
I rub the side of my head. “It’s all giving me a headache.” I peer around the bed and spy the diary on the floor. “And then I found something super weird.”
“Huh? What is it?”
“My mom hid a diary in the baseboard.”
“Whoa. How’d you find that?”
“I slammed my bedroom door and then kicked the wall. In all the room shaking, the baseboard fell off the wall. My mom must’ve jammed it inside.”
“Did you know she kept a diary?”
“Nope. I’m guessing no one did, or she wouldn’t have hidden it.”
“Are you going to show it to Maddy?”
“With the way I’m feeling right now, I’d rather keep it from her.”
“Have you read any of it?”
“No. I found it and then you called.”
“Well, crack it open,” Kai says with excitement. “I wanna know what it says.”
I slide off the bed and creep toward the dusty old book. I crouch, reaching for it, and then pull back. “I can’t.”
“What do you mean, you can’t?”
“I haven’t seen my mom in ten years. I can’t just crack open her diary.”
“I can read it for you and tell you what it says.” I can tell by his tone he’d have already snatched it if he were here.
“I just need some time to psych myself up.”
There’s a knock at my door. “Jamie?”
“Ugh. Aunt Maddy’s at the door,” I say to Kai. “I gotta go.”
“Don’t give in,” Kai blurts.
“I won’t. See ya tomorrow.”
“Yep. See ya.”
I hang up from Kai and march toward my door. I swing it open and then cross my arms and pout. “Yes?”
Aunt Maddy sighs, hunching. “Can we talk? I hate how we left things.”
I give her my brattiest look as I pop a hip. “You mean when you called me petty and jealous?”
“Can we please just rewind and talk about this? I hate fighting with you.”
I trudge back to my bed and plonk down. “It was just a shock that someone could whisk you away from me.”
“It was a shock for me too,” Aunt Maddy says, sitting beside me.
“I had no idea David would ask me to go away with him. I’ve been in Logan’s Point and Victoria Falls my whole life.
Sure, I’d love a vacation, but Hawaii was never on my radar.
Come on, you have to admit, it’s a bit of a fairytale moment. ”
I give in, nodding. “Yeah, it is. Feels like you’re being sucked into your own rom-com.”
Aunt Maddy nudges me. “Admit it, you are jealous.”
I give her an indignant look.
“Not of David or anything,” Maddy clarifies, “but the whole rom-com thing. You want your own romance, don’t you?”
I slouch and rest my head on her shoulder. “You know I do.”
“Don’t take it out on David. He’s a nice man. A good man. He cares about me and also cares about you.”
I take my head off her shoulder. “He tolerates me to keep in your good books.”
“Can you blame him? You’re not exactly the nicest to him. I have to commend him for his patience with you. He’ll make a good father.”
I recoil. “Eww. You’re thinking about having kids with this guy?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t date someone who’ll waste my time. I want an endgame.”
“I’m never calling him Uncle David.”
Maddy splutters a laugh. “I don’t care. You’ll probably be out of school by the time we get married.”
“Probably?” I question. “I can’t believe you’re already thinking about marriage.”
“Most rom-coms end with a marriage,” she says, pinching my cheek. “You’ve conditioned me with the constant movie streaming.”
I retch, smacking her hand away. “Don’t put me off the movies.”
“Do you want to watch one now?”
I give a sly smile. “Yes.”
“Have you finished all your homework?”
I roll my eyes and look up at the ceiling. “Dang. Do you really have to turn into an uber-nag?”
Aunt Maddy laughs, latching her arms around me. “Yes, because I care about you, Jamie. Hey, what happened to your baseboard?”
Aunt Maddy unravels her arms from around me and I scoot off the bed. I move over to the wall and pick up the dusty old book.
I show it to Maddy. “Did you know about this?”
She shakes her head, confused. “What is that?”
“I found it stuffed inside the wall.” I pause before dropping the bomb. “It was Mom’s.”
“Whoa,” Maddy murmurs as I gently set the book in her hands. Tears bud in her eyes as she stares at it. “I wondered where this went.”
I eagerly sit beside her. “So, you knew she kept a diary?”
Aunt Maddy sets in on her lap and turns to me with a smile. Her eyes have a watery shine. “She started writing in it while we lived in Logan’s Point. The last time I saw it was around the time you were two-years-old.”
“Whoa,” I mutter. I take the book and hold it carefully at the edges, like it's an invaluable treasure. “So, there’s stuff in here from before I was born?”
“Should be.” Maddy then lays a hand on the book and her tone turns stern. “Be careful when reading this. There could be stuff about your dad in it.”
I instantly drop the book and it bounces off my knees, smacking onto the floor. My mouth stays open, and Aunt Maddy and I share a hesitant look.
“She didn’t tell us who he was for a reason,” Maddy says, alarm bells replacing the tears in her eyes.
I suck in a breath and swallow hard. “I know. He was dangerous.”
Aunt Maddy scoops the book up from the floor and holds it out to me. “You can read this if you really want to. But there are things in here that Lily didn’t want us to know.”